Untitled 1
.style1 {
font-style: normal;
}
Web-Only Video
Programming Heading for the Home TV…Finally
Colin Dixon, Broadband Media Practice Manager
May 27, 2009
For years TDG has
been discussing the inevitability of web video finding its way from the “small
screen” PC to the” big screen” TV. With devices connected to the TV, such as
Game Consoles and DVRs, acquiring broadband connections the easiest way for
consumers to see web videos on their televisions is through services launched on
these platforms. Movie services on the Xbox and PS3 game consoles are doing well
and Netflix has had well documented success on a number of platforms. But all of
these approaches have focused on mainstream media such as movies and TV shows
which are already available at the television by other means.
However, in the
last two weeks there has been a bevy of announcements that hold the promise of
enabling the delivery professionally produced web content to the TV screen.
These announcements highlight how the web is starting to impact what we can
watch on our TVs.
Observation
1 – For the most part, successful online video efforts focus on
aggregating and distributing mainstream content (e.g., movies and TV shows
already in demand). Very few online-only content creators have had significant
success with PC delivery, much less breaking through to the promised land of TV.
As more and more broadband connections reach the living room, however, a wide
assortment of non-traditional web-only video will be integrated into the TV
experience.
In just the last
few weeks, TDG has observed a number of announcements that portend of such a
shift.
- Clearleap, a company enabling new content distribution models, announced
partnerships with Next New Networks, Revision3, and Bip.TV to deliver their
web-only content to PayTV operator networks through the Clear|Flow content
management platform. This relationship will allow web-only video providers
expand their reach to the TV and potentially sell ads against their content
through Clearleap’s Clear|Profit platform.
-
Anysource Media, a company making solutions to combine new media with
traditional TV, announced that its Connected HDTV Platform could now deliver
web-based video directly from the websites of content partners such as
TheStreet.com, Revision3, and Next New Networks. AnySource’s TV navigator
client is being integrated into new HDTV’s, thus allowing easy
channel-up/channel-down access to web video content. To do this, TV viewers
connect their TV directly to their home network; no additional box is
required (a huge plus for both consumers and content vendors).
- After trialing its own TV-based web video delivery service for more than
a year (with results being closely held),
Verizon is set to bring seven million web video clips from the likes of
Veoh Networks, Blip.TV, and Dailymotion to FiOS TV customers. The service
requires customers to first install PC software from which they select
videos they want to be recorded by their home DVR for later TV viewing.
- The good: all sorts of web video may be delivered directly to the
TV.
- The bad: no one knows which online video sources will make it
through the tests.
- TThe ugly: it requires integration with and use of the PC (major
turnoff for ordinary consumers) and the IPG does not incorporate these
new online video sources side-by-side with linear programming, meaning
those hoping to find and watch such video will have to stumble through
page upon page of search results, not at all optimal given the power of
today’s video search solutions.
|
Exciting
as these announcements may be, it is important to remember that most
consumers are already awash in content from their PayTV providers, with
most subscribing to several hundred channels yet watching fewer than 20
on a weekly basis. In other words, they might be a bit hesitant to go
looking for new content sources. This market dominance has served Pay TV
operators and content distributors well for many years, but as more
personalized and customized offerings become available, one has to
wonder how long the “500-channel universe” and its bundled service hook
will satisfy consumer needs….
Observation 2 – According to TDG’s consumer research, a growing
number of consumers are watching more TV programming on their PC instead
of their TV. Yes, other researchers argue that online video viewing has
no impact on TV viewing but this is (a) short sighted, if not altogether
wrong (just ask the network executives), and (b) assumes consumers are
using online video to watch for a second time a program they viewed on
TV the first time.
|
|
 |
First, as TDG’s
latest research suggests, viewing online TV programming is indeed having a
dilutive impact on the amount of time adult consumers spend watching regular TV.
For the first time since we’ve been tracking this balance, the percentage of
consumers watching less TV because of viewing online TV viewing is higher than
the percentage who watch more TV because of viewing online TV programs…and
significantly so. In fact, 22% of adult consumers who watch online TV
programming say they are watching “less regular TV than before” (up from 18% in
December 2008) compared with 10% who say they are watching “more regular TV than
before” (down from 18% in 2008).
Second, when
asked whether they are primarily (a) ewatching a TV program or (b) “catching
up” on a show they missed when it first aired, 90% of adult online TV viewers
chose the latter – that is, watching these programs because they missed them
when they originally aired on TV. In other words, a key benefit of online TV
viewing is that it serves the same purpose as a DVR by enabling consumers to
watch their favorite shows on their own schedule, on demand, but without having
to preschedule a recording as with a DVR. This “catching up” activity is by
definition a substitution versus a supplementary behavior (online viewing in
lieu of TV viewing), meaning those who continue to believe that online video
viewing does not and will not have a dilutive effect on regular TV viewing are
delusional.
To make matters
worse, those most likely to behave this way are younger viewers, suggesting that
over the next 10-20 years true quantum media access (the anytime,
anywhere, any device, any content paradigm) will grow in value when compared
with static linear viewing.
Does this mean
that consumers are already clamoring to view content from Revision3 or Blip.TV
on their TV? Sorry but that is not the case. For one, mainstream TV viewers have
little idea who these web-only content creators are much less the nature of
their content. This lack of familiarity plagues the entire web-only video
industry and this is unlikely to change in the short term. Second, bringing
web-only video to the TV is either a no-fee value add (and thus is perceived as
having no additional value of its own) or requires spending significant
marketing dollars in order to create the perception of solid value. In either
case, establishing the value of web-only content to TV viewers is fraught with
challenges.
The appeal of
web-only video is not limited to any specific website. Its real value lies in
the mind-blowing diversity of video content that resides on the web and the
online infrastructure that allows a consumer to access it in a quantum fashion
(without regard to time or place). Delivering this value to the TV in a truly
open fashion, however, is limited by political, technical, and financial issues,
meaning the best this content can hope for is to trickle into the traditional TV
realm site by site or program by program. In the meantime we expect to see
walled-garden approaches such as Netflix and Xbox LIVE dominate in the delivery
of over-the-top video. With simple well-known business models and a direct path
to the TV, such approaches are attractive to both consumers and providers alike.
In the end, what
the Clearleap, Anysource, and Verizon announcements illustrate is that the
Internet is slowly establishing itself as a valid ecosystem for the creation and
delivery of original content. This content is already displacing traditional TV
viewing and, like regular TV, consumers want it on their TV. It appears that,
finally, the systems and technology to enable this vision are arriving.
ShareThis